From Messenger for the AGBU to Chairman of the Board

The Armenian Reporter International

by Edward K. Boghosian
Senior Editor

New York—Garo H. Armen, PhD, the successful New York City businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist, recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, was employed by the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), NYC headquarters, as a messenger boy soon after his arrival from Istanbul, Turkey, in 1970. Over the years, in comparatively brief time and through hard work, he managed to climb the ladder of business success. Presently, he serves as board chairman of two multimillion-dollar firms, one in New York City and the other about 3,000 miles away in Ireland, with a total employment of over 3,000 on both shores.

A rebel during his early years, Armen was coaxed by his father to leave Turkey for the United States, as his father felt concern over his son’s future in his place of birth. Garo remembers confrontations with the Turkish vice principal of the Armenian school he attended over the rights of Armenians for self-determination. He and his friends were consistently harassed by the Turkish youth. “I grew up in an environment of hostility,” wrote Armen in a New York Times Op-Ed piece, “where Turkish gangs came to school to give us a hard time and we learned how to protect ourselves. At 17, my father asked me, even though it was a very painful decision for him, to leave the country. He was concerned that, if I stayed, I would end up in jail because of my very strong views on politics and Armenians.”

Arriving in this country at age 17, Armen was embraced by the Dikijian family of Brooklyn, who provided him with a safe home. He worked hard in his studies and supported himself by working at a variety of jobs. His first job was at the AGBU, where he was employed as a messenger boy running around town. Working five hours a day, five days a week, he was paid $2 per hour and mastered the city’s complex subway system. Noting the importance of higher education, Armen continued his studies at Queens College, New York, and eventually obtained a doctoral degree in physical chemistry from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He was appointed research associate at Brookhaven National Laboratories on Long Island, where his work centered on the fields of photosynthesis and energy production. During his years as a research scientist, Armen also became interested in stocks—so interested that he decided to borrow some money to invest around $4,000. “I felt guilty doing it,” Armen stated. “On the other hand, I made $20,000 in a short period, at a time when my annual salary was $16,500.”

Subsequently, Armen made and lost a great deal of money during this time. He started a sporting goods store as a sideline and managed to pay off all of his debts. Fascinated with the stock market, Armen left Brookhaven Laboratories and found employment on Wall Street, as a health care analyst at E.F. Hutton & Co. (presently part of Citigroup Inc.) for five years, then on to Dean Witter (now part of Morgan Stanley) for three years. With these employment experiences, he was able to start his own firm focusing on investing in the health care industry.

In 1993, Armen met scientist Dr. Pramod Srivastava. Srivastava, affiliated with Mount Sinai Hospital, discovered that heat shock proteins taken from one’s tumors could provide a powerful new weapon against cancers. “The approach made sense to me, but no technology or products existed to accomplish it,” Armen said. “Pramod had the mouse trap.” In March 1994, investing $200,000 of his own money, Armen, together with Srivastava, founded Antigenics Inc., his American biotechnology operation. Ten years and more than $350 million later, the company’s lead personalized cancer vaccine Oncophage is currently being evaluated in Phase 3 studies for the treatment of kidney cancer and melanoma, and has been granted US FDA fast track and orphan designations for both indications. In June 2002, Armen was recognized as the “NYC Biotechnology Entrepreneur of the Year” by Ernst & Young.

In the same year, Armen was called upon to take over the helm at the troubled Irish pharmaceutical company Elan Corporation. He was asked to lead the company as chairman and interim chief executive. His task was to fix a once high-flying pharmaceutical industry star, the shares of which quickly collapsed when investors began questioning the firm’s accounting. “For about three months—from the beginning of July 2002 to the end of September—every day, every hour was critical for Elan. Any one of many things could have made the company collapse. It was a mess,” stated Armen. “I took on this responsibility because it was morally the right thing to do, given Elan’s breakthrough programs in the treatment of debilitating diseases such as multiple sclerosis. I could not risk having a negative outcome.”

Successful Divestment of Numerous Divisions

Having to face a multimillion-dollar deficit, Armen successfully divested many divisions of Elan's assets and managed to raise funds to satisfy creditors. This was not an easy task for Armen, who spent long hours commuting between New York, London and Dublin, where Elan is located, in addition to running his New York-based company Antigenics. When Elan came out of financial troubles, thanks to the leadership of Armen, he prepared to hand over the reins of Elan to a new full-time CEO, with Armen continuing to serve as a non-executive chairman of the board.

In addition to his leadership responsibilities with Antigenics and Elan, Armen initiated a nonprofit organization, the Children of Armenia Fund, in 2000. This charity, known by its acronym of COAF, turned into his pet project. He visited Armenia and became aware of many of the challenges facing his country, including the danger that unexploded landmines presented to local inhabitants, particularly in the border area, which was once the scene of heavy fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. COAF managed to far exceed its fundraising target of $100,000 for its landmine removal campaign—funds that were then matched three-to-one by the US State Department.

At the same time, Armen had begun to fund various local projects in Armenia. Soon thereafter it became clear to Armen that, in contrast to Yerevan, rural parts of Armenia were in a critical state and needed immediate attention in order to have any chance for a recovery. Through COAF he initiated a pilot recovery program for the village of Karakert. This program involves significant upgrading of schools, kindergartens, health care delivery, overall infrastructure and the economic life in this village of 5,000 people that has a particularly high proportion of children. As Armen states, “these are first-world people but they are stuck in a third-world pit.” COAF plans on expanding its rural renewal programs to other villages in similarly desperate conditions upon the successful implementation of this pilot project, which is designed to deliver a comprehensive solution so that, in several years, the town will become self-sustainable. In its efforts to implement its rural renewal programs, COAF has, in its short life, forged several important partnerships with international agencies, such as the United Nations agency, UNDP and USAID as well as the World Bank.

A Staff of Eight

COAF presently has a staff of eight in Armenia, who are charged with the implementation of its various high-priority projects. “The dedication of our staff has allowed the realization of many of our goals in a very short period of time,” he says. “When we were contemplating these programs, many thought them too ambitious or impossible to achieve.” Armen travels to Armenia every three months and, due to his sense of urgency to attend to COAF's ongoing critical programs, he has committed to continue visiting every three months for the foreseeable future. His next journey to Armenia will be the week of September 27, when he will continue his efforts with the implementation of COAF projects. Earlier this year, COAF received major financial assistance from a non-Armenian couple. Mr. Larry Feinberg, a former colleague of Armen’s, and Mrs. Cindy Feinberg, contributed a million dollars to COAF at the “Save a Generation Award” dinner held June 24 in New York City. The event raised $1.4 million, which will be used to address the urgent needs of a very special Armenian generation of spirited boys and girls. According to Armen, “These much-needed funds reach children in desperate need of basic development requirements and will ensure that we will be able to apply these programs more quickly, resulting in a greater impact on the lives of children throughout rural Armenia who are facing rapidly deteriorating conditions.”

The story of Dr. Garo H. Armen is typical of an Armenian young man, who achieved success in business and then remembered his less fortunate country and its children. He is doing everything possible within his means to assist them. COAF is a registered charity solely dedicated to the positive development of the children and youth in Armenia. Its objective is to address all areas of essential child development by creating sustainable and effective program designed to reverse the current impoverished conditions that affect the majority of the population, particularly those in rural areas, and beneficially impact greatest number of young Armenians.